Jean Gao, Ph.D.

Dr. Gao joined the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) in 2024 as a Program Director in the Office of Genomic Data Science. She manages a portfolio of grants focused on developing data science and computational methods to address complex challenges in genomics science and genomic medicine. She co-leads the CGDS (Computational Genomics and Data Science) R01 and R21 program, and the Common Fund Bridge2AI (Bridge to Artificial Intelligence) program. In addition, she represents NHGRI for the ODSS (Office of Data Science Strategy) Sustainable Software Tools program. She also manages several flagship cyberinfrastructure projects including Galaxy, Genome Browser, Bioconductor, and Dockstore. Her portfolio also includes the MorPhiC (Molecular Phenotypes of Null Alleles in Cells) program.

Prior to joining NHGRI, Dr. Gao served for four years as a Program Director in the National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Biological Infrastructure (DBI). As the Program Director for bioinformatics and computational biology, she managed related grant portfolios under DBI (Innovation: Bioinformatics program and Capacity: Cyberinfrastructure program). She co-initiated several NSF-wide programs, including Mid-Career Advancement (MCA), the Dark Dimensions for the RNA Regulome (D2R2) Ideas Lab, and Pathways to Enable Open-Source Ecosystems (POSE).

Previously, Dr. Gao was a tenured Full Professor in the Computer Science and Engineering Department at the University of Texas at Arlington. Her research focuses on developing efficient algorithms to solve large scale data analytics problems in basic medicine and in clinical settings while making theoretical and fundamental contributions to machine learning, data mining, artificial intelligence, statistical pattern recognition, and computer vision. Her research discoveries have been reported in over 190 journals and conference proceedings.

Dr. Gao has served as an Associate Editor for IEEE/ACM Transactions on Computational Biology and Bioinformatics (TCBB) since 2008 and previously chaired its Steering Committee. She is the recipient of prestigious National Science Foundation Early Career Award and is a Lifetime Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE). 

She holds a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Purdue University, an M.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, and a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Shanghai Medical University.